Delhi High Court refuses to order linking of Aadhar or Pan with Social Media Accounts

During the hearing on Monday, the Delhi High Court refused to order the central government to link social media accounts with Aadhaar, PAN or voter ID cards. The court said that with this, the data of genuine account holders, whose number is very high, will unnecessarily get exposed to foreign companies. 

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Harishankar said that policies have to be formulated to link Aadhaar, PAN or other identity-related documents on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, or the Center needs to amend the existing law.

Role of courts is to interpret the law as it is. We are not concerned with what the law ought to be. Also said that in some exceptions where there will be some deficiency in the law, the court can give its opinion.

The bench said that in this case, linking social media accounts with identity documents like Aadhaar or PAN is an important matter which the central government should understand. This cannot be seen as a deficiency, which the court needs to fix as it will have far-reaching consequences in relation to the data of the real account holders.

The bench said that it is not obliged to issue any directives to the government as it is already discussing the Law Commission report on the issue. Saying this, the bench disposed of the PIL which requested the Center to take steps to link social media accounts with Aadhaar, PAN or Voter ID.